Sophomore Dylan Barrett is founding St. Thomas’ first drum line in an effort to build his vision for a university marching band.

Barrett is no stranger to forming music groups. He started a pep band last year as a first-year student. Originating from a small base of seminarians, it soon attracted other students and grew into a popular club for musicians of all types.

Barrett sought out sophomore Lily Hastings, head of percussion at St. Thomas, to help him get started.

Last year, Hastings and Barrett tried to organize drum line practices but struggled with a lack of equipment and attendance.

This summer, Barrett and Hastings organized fundraisers to purchase about $5,000 worth of equipment as a starting point to build the drum line as a recognized club at the university.

The drum line has a set of crash symbols, two bass drums, two tenors and two snares. Eventually they hope to have these numbers grow, along with the number of members involved.

“If we don’t have enough drums, we play on buckets or trash cans,” Hastings said. “There’s different things we have to figure out depending on how many people we get.”

Last year, Barrett and Hastings only reached out to those who were already involved in the music department. However, scheduling drum line practices around other music-related commitments made it difficult to find a common meeting time.

This year they wanted to reach out to the greater student body. Another student suggested the seminarians.

David Sacha, a senior seminarian, was already committed to both the pep band and the seminary. Hastings asked for his help to recruit other seminarians.

To build the club, an open call for percussionists was announced for the St. Thomas football game on Sept. 2. The recruitment was successful with around 15 to 18 percussionists, and half of them were seminarians. With a growing percussion group, Barrett put Hastings and Sacha in charge of developing the drum line. They are in charge of recruitment, scheduling practice and training.

The first practice on Sept. 11 had 12 attendees, but 20 students have expressed interest in the club.

“It has to have consistent student interest from one year to the next,” said Matthew J. George, a professor of music and director and chair of orchestra and bands at the university. “If you want it to be especially effective, you have to be committed to the obligations of practice.”

The drum line will be playing regularly with the pep band, but will also be playing in the Homecoming parade on Oct. 7.

“I’d like for drum line to play at some of the bigger events on campus … to get exposure which leads to people getting interested,” Hastings said. “Maybe someday we’ll be playing at the big sporting events and the freshman retreat.”

Kailyn Johnson can be reached at john4298@stthomas.edu.